Ex-President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday demanded the incarceration of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of not safeguarding federal immigration officers.
"The city's leader should be jailed for endangering ICE Officers!" Trump wrote on social media Wednesday morning. "The Illinois governor too!"
The two leaders are members of the Democratic party.
These remarks come alongside the deployment of National Guard troops in the Windy City area under orders from the current government, notwithstanding strong objections from state officials including Pritzker and Johnson.
"This represents not the first instance where Trump attempted to have a Black man unjustly detained," Johnson responded on Wednesday. "I'm not going put."
The governor responded via online channels, declaring: "I refuse to yield. Now Trump is demanding arrests of elected officials resisting his authority. What remains on the road toward complete authoritarianism?"
By Wednesday morning, military units from Texas had reached the Elwood training facility, a military installation roughly 80 kilometers from Chicago, as the administration advances with its aggressive urban crime policy and immigration enforcement operations.
Trump has labeled Chicago a "dangerous hellhole", even though police data indicate notable reductions in most criminal activities, such as homicides.
That day, two hundred state guard members were scheduled to arrive to the Chicago area, with an additional three hundred Illinois guard personnel preparing to mobilize, according to reports. Officials reportedly stated the soldiers would not perform police functions but would protect federal immigration agents and government buildings.
Military personnel in combat attire with state guard patches were spotted at the military facility in Elwood. Trucks marked "Emergency Disaster Services" delivered sanitation facilities and other supplies. Trailers were set up in rows. Additional fencing was installed around the perimeter.
The Federal Aviation Administration imposed no-fly zones over the army reserve center for safety concerns until 6 December.
The administration has intensified immigration enforcement in Chicago in the past month, sparking protests, particularly near an processing facility in a Chicago suburb.
On Monday, Illinois and Chicago initiated legal action against the administration, seeking to block the military dispatch, asking a federal judge to stop what they call "Trump's long-declared 'War'" on the city and state, calling it "illegal and risky".
A court hearing on their case is set for the next day.
Mayor Johnson also issued an executive order on Monday prohibiting ICE officers and related personnel from using municipal facilities as staging areas for deportation efforts.
The governor has accused Trump of using military forces as "political props" and "pawns".
At a news conference on the previous day, Pritzker said that Trump is trying to "justify and make acceptable the deployment of military personnel under his personal authority."
The historic federal law restricts the military's role in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be prepared to activate the emergency powers, which permits a president to send active duty military in states that are failing to suppress an insurrection or are defying federal law.
Since starting his new administration, the president has sent or discussed deploying troops to at least 10 urban centers, such as major metropolitan areas and California cities like Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, claiming that the military presence is essential to fight violence and defend ICE officers.
Statistics indicates that serious offenses across the US has decreased in the past few years. In the city, for example, murders were reduced nearly one-third to under three hundred through August, according to police data.
New survey data released on that day revealed that the majority of US citizens oppose the sending of troops without an foreign danger.
